Creative techniques to strategically attract audiences.

Posts Tagged ‘Strategy’

Have you ever wondered how much it makes sense to spend on your Digital Marketing?

Instead of giving you a flat, one-size-fits-all number, would having access to a Marketing Calculator, so that you can work from actual numbers that make sense for your own business, help you?

If so, read on! (And keep scrolling until the end for a free offer from me!)

Many business owners come to me wondering what’s possible in Digital Marketing, without a sliver or an idea on what type of budget they are willing to invest.

I understand there is a ton of confusion in this space, from people thinking that they must spend 100% of their revenue into marketing, to others fooling themselves into thinking that being “in the social media era” means that they can make six or seven figures without any kind of investment.

Here’s the reality: It’s so easy to calculate a proper budget, that on the most basic level, you can do it by just answering three questions.

And these aren’t questions that require huge essays as responses. I’m talking about three simple numbers, and numbers you probably know already, or can figure out pretty easily.

Here’s a story about cheap websites: When I tell people I’m in the digital marketing business, and take a time to explain my history and credentials, they often reply with horror stories about how they hate their current site, or how their current site is really not doing anything to help their business… and quite often, I hear both.

People report this to me so often, that I just have to wonder, “How did they ever end up with something they absolutely hate, and that doesn’t work for them?”

Knowing the human nature, I can guess that the main reason is because they found the cheapest solution, and just ran with it. They wanted a “cheap website” and they got it. But did they even understand the problem? The problem they sought to solve was simply “not having a website,” but upon launching, a laundry list of problems they didn’t see coming unmercifully stares them in the face.

You get what you pay for, as they say.

(Where I grew up, they used to say something like, “it’s really expensive to go cheap.” I like that phrase a lot better. 😉 )

Here are 7 risks you take by going with the first cheap provider that crosses your way.

“So what is this “Creative Strategy” thing all about? Is it just another buzzword?”

When trying to communicate a special message, with the goal of influencing others in some manner, the two main issues people and businesses struggle with are:

Struggle #1- How can they compose a message that is clear, relevant, and stands out above the noise?

In this age of information literally moving at the speed of light, anyone trying to communicate has to fight against an enormous giant: An incredible volume of information and content all competing at the same time for people’s attention. Our message can have the potential to transmit an amazing level of value, and still be buried under a daunting number of options our target audience needs to weed through to perceive it. A few facts that might surprise you:

The average web user is confronted with 1,700 banner ads per month.

People are getting more and more skilled at ignoring advertising across all media. Stats of ad-ignorers range from 38%-85%, depending on the media and demographic composition.

80-85% of skippable ads on YouTube are effectively skipped.

It is apparent that communicating a valuable message, and outputting that message as forcefully and strategically as possible, is no longer enough in the current technology landscape.

Struggle #2- What can they do to ensure their message is effectively received?

At the same time, being original and unique is no longer anything to be proud of if our message reaches a very small segment of our intended audience. Many genius ideas have died in the dark alleys of obsolescence or invisibility. However, placing a sign with the highest available exposure, like an amazingly expensive ad on the ground of the World Soccer Cup field, is just not an option for the great majority of businesses.

In most cases, businesses won’t be able to leverage capital to gain exposure, and a highly-creative message often does very little on its own to expand its reach. However, these same businesses tend to put all their focus on these two elements (capital and creativity), while forgetting another essential component entirely.

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These two problems can be very strong obstacles to overcome, and when they’re not overcome, they’ve crippled some of the greatest businesses and initiatives around the globe. So what is the solution?

Now that you understand the problems, I would like to invite you to read the solution I propose, which I’ve made available as an easy-to-read ebook. All you need to do is input your email address on the right side (or on the bottom if you’re on a mobile device), and I’ll send it to you right away for free.

Update: Sorry! The Creative Strategy Manifesto is no longer available for free. It will be rewritten, expanded and published soon.

In the meantime, if you haven’t done so, feel free to download The Attraction Checklist for free! Just sign up and I’ll send it to your email inbox.

Social Media managers are constantly confronted with the challenge of proving ROI (Return On Investment), and very understandably so. Any responsible business is concerned with every type investment — money, time, energy, focus, or whatever — providing some type of measurable benefit.

The huge dead end many managers find themselves in is to expect a direct profit return from an investment in Social Media. In the best of cases, serious budget reserves are directed towards Community Managers and varied tools and systems, and in the end, that direct return is nowhere to be seen.

Do you want to produce a viral video? In other words, do you want to produce and release a video for your brand that absolutely goes viral? You of course wish your video goes viral because of the tons of views that would generate. So you want to know?

One of the things that drives me crazy about my fellow marketers is a habit that has turned into part of their daily glossary: referring to viewers or audiences as “eyeballs”. For example, when something gets mass visibility, it is said to have attracted “lots of eyeballs.”

Now I know that this is meant as a funny way to put an image to a number. A way to make something as abstract as a statistic into a concrete image.